coobybook Chapter 238 The third concubine
Chapter 238 The third concubine
royal palace.
Li Ce couldn't fall asleep after lying down, and his mind was in a mess.
Seeing that it was almost dawn, Li Ce simply got out of bed and planned to go out early.
Just after changing clothes, Liang Gaosheng's new apprentice came in to report.
"Your Majesty, the Deputy Commander of the Imperial Guards, Mr. Huang, requests to see you."
"at this time?"
Li Ce raised his eyebrows, waved away the eunuchs, tied his belt himself, and walked out.
Deputy Commander Huang saluted and spoke directly.
"Your Majesty, a concubine in the Crown Prince's mansion has suddenly died. The mansion needs to report the death and hold a funeral. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince asked me to go to the palace to ask for Your Majesty's instructions."
Li Ce lowered his eyebrows, and an ambiguous light flashed in his eyes.
"The prince's concubine died suddenly? Which one?"
Deputy Commander Huang replied: "It is a fifth-rank seal."
As soon as he finished speaking, he suddenly heard the emperor sneer.
"What a coincidence! Haha!"
Deputy Commander Huang didn't dare to look up and pretended that he didn't hear the voice.
He waited for a long time before the emperor spoke again.
"How could a concubine of the Crown Prince, a fifth-rank official, suddenly die of illness? There must be some mystery behind this!"
Li Ce stroked his beard meaningfully.
"Come here, tell the Minister of Justice and the Deputy Minister of the Supreme Court to go to Prince Yong's mansion and find out the cause of Crown Prince Chenghui's death."
Liang Gaosheng on the side responded "Yes" and turned around to ask someone to go out of the palace to pass on the message.
Deputy Commander Huang couldn't help but raise his head and asked with a little confusion.
"Then the prince..."
"Just tell the truth. If the prince has any questions, tell him to come and ask me himself!"
Li Ce flicked his sleeves, not giving Deputy Commander Huang a chance to speak, and turned back into the hall.
Deputy Commander Huang touched his head, still not quite understanding.
He had no intention of thinking deeply about it, so he just put these doubts aside and left the palace.
A quarter of an hour later, in Fenglai Palace, Chang Xin was relaying the new news he had just received in detail.
"…Deputy Commander Huang has left the palace. The Emperor went to the Taiji Palace after breakfast."
Jiang Wanyue sat in front of the dressing table, her long black hair cascading down her back like a waterfall.
After listening to Chang Xin's report, she waved at the screen behind her.
"Got it. You can go down now! Concubine De and the others will come to pay their respects in a little while. Prepare tea and snacks. Prepare the snacks that the three princesses like."
She gave a few detailed instructions, all about trivial matters in the palace, and her tone was neither hurried nor slow, which made people feel at ease.
Xing'er brought two little palace maids to carefully comb their master's hair.
"What kind of hairstyle do you want today, Madam?"
Jiang Wanyue looked at her pale face through the shining brass mirror and said in a casual tone.
"Let's make it more complicated. We are sending Princess Qixia and Prince Dingbei out of the capital today, so we have to make it more grand. Oh, take out the four-dragon and four-phoenix crown first and put it on when we go out."
Xing'er nodded, sent the palace maid to get the hair crown, and personally combed Jiang Wanyue's hair and tied it into a bun.
She was naturally deft with her hands, and was in charge of these things when she first came to Jiang Wanyue's side. However, after being promoted to a female official in recent years, she had more things to take care of, and she hadn't done anything herself for a long time.
Jiang Wanyue likes her craft very much.
After a while, a high bun was done.
Xing'er picked out three pairs of peacock tail hairpins inlaid with rubies from several dressing boxes and inserted them on both sides of the bun. She also selected several small pearl hairpins and inserted them in a row in front of the bun, and then put a small lily crown on Jiang Wanyue's head.
In this way, later you just need to take off the lily crown and replace it with the four dragons and four phoenixes crown, and you don’t need to comb your hair again.
Jiang Wanyue was very satisfied and patted Xing'er's hand with a smile.
"Your skills are not rusty at all."
Xing Er smiled and said, "This is my specialty. If your majesty allows, I would like to come over every day to comb your hair. You can also let others discipline the little palace maids."
Jiang Wanyue felt a little disappointed.
"Once this matter is over peacefully, if you want to come back to me, it's up to you."
This made Xing'er silent for a while.
After a moment, she spoke uneasily.
"Your Majesty, what do you think of the Emperor..."
She didn't dare finish her words.
Jiang Wanyue raised her hand and gently stroked her long eyebrows.
"Let's find out who's behind this first!"
From Li Ce's behavior towards the prince yesterday, it can be seen that he was indeed suspicious.
But it was just suspicion. He still had some sanity left and would not take direct action against the prince because of what happened yesterday.
In fact, if he had lost his temper on the spot yesterday, we would have been more relieved. Now all the suspicions and emotions are suppressed in his heart, and no one knows what will brew.
Chang Xin just reported that a concubine in the Prince's mansion suddenly died, which was most likely a follow-up to yesterday's incident.
However, Jiang Wanyue couldn’t guess it yet.
She just vaguely felt that she was involved.
There are only two concubines in the prince's backyard, both of whom are the palace maids who enlightened him. These two people were arranged by Jiang Wanyue. No matter who has a problem, it is very likely to be framed on her.
Her thoughts never stopped.
There were sounds of footsteps outside, and the concubines came over to pay their respects.
Jiang Wanyue gathered her sleeves and walked out with Xing'er and the others.
She glanced back at the open window and saw the overcast sky.
A gust of wind suddenly blew by, making the flowers and trees in the pots outside the window rustle.
The storm is coming and the wind is blowing in the building!
The greetings from the harem have always been relatively relaxed.
The emperor did not have a special fondness for any of his concubines. The concubines tried to vie for his favor time and again, but were reprimanded by the emperor and either fined or confined to his home. Over time, no one cared about him anymore.
Since the approach with the emperor didn't work, they turned to the queen.
Jiang Wanyue has always treated these concubines equally and would not favor any of them out of personal preference. Even if there were disputes, she would handle them impartially.
So, although life in the palace was a bit boring, it was peaceful.
As soon as Jiang Wanyue arrived, Zhu Yan immediately stood up with everyone.
After she sat down, everyone saluted in unison.
"I pay my respects to Her Majesty the Queen. May Her Majesty be in good health."
Jiang Wanyue waved her hand, called everyone to come up, and asked someone to bring tea and snacks.
Zhu Yan hugged Li Chengyin, sighed, and then spoke.
"Yin'er didn't get to see Princess Qixia yesterday, and she's been thinking about it the whole time! I wonder if Yin'er can go with her today?"
Li Chengyin looked at Jiang Wanyue eagerly.
Although Qixia had plotted against Li Chengyin in the past, the child had a short memory and had long forgotten what happened. Li Chengyin had not seen this cousin much, but he liked her very much.
The main thing is that Qixia would give her gifts every New Year and other festivals, sometimes they were embroidery works she made herself, sometimes they were small gadgets bought from outside, and in the past two years, she gave her some small and cute jewelry.
Even Zhu Yan let go of his grudges.
She felt reluctant to marry Qixia and think that she might never come back.
Jiang Wanyue knew what the mother and daughter were thinking, so she smiled.
"Okay, you and Concubine Rong will go see Qixia off later."
Zhu Yan felt relieved and smiled.
Li Chengyin blinked his eyes, glanced at the little sister opposite him, ran over to pull her out of the line, and bowed to Jiang Wanyue.
"Thank you, Queen Mother."
Jiang Wanyue pulled the two of them up and asked them about their situations. Then, she suddenly thought of something and turned to look at Luo Yudian who was silent beside her.
"Shu Fei, please come with us!"
There are only three of them who can be concubines. If we bring Concubine De and Concubine Rong, it would seem like we are excluding her if we don't bring Concubine Shu.